Summaries of working group sessions

Following the one-and–a-half-days of plenary sessions, the workshop broke into five working groups. These working groups were:

• Household and farm level

• Integrated watershed management

• Basin/trans-boundary level management

• Funding and governance

• Capacity building

The groups were expected to identify key issues of research and capacity building interest to Ethiopia, explore potential research questions, identify key partnerships and determine next steps. If time allowed, the groups were to draft relevant pre-concept notes. The groups were also encouraged to provide feedback on the framework paper.

The remainder of this paper summarises the output from each of the five working groups.

Group I: Household, farm, community level issues

This group focused its discussion on the following priority areas:

Poverty alleviation

• Develop and select relevant household indicators of poverty in the Ethiopia context (e.g. economic, food security, health, education, type of house)

• Assess and analyse the causes of poverty especially in rural Ethiopia

• Determine the level and incidence of poverty in specific communities and relate these to current water and land management strategies, and identify ways for improvement.

Water harvesting

• Research and capacity building on water storage technologies for their efficiency and appropriateness (including technologies to reduce seepage and loss of stored water)

• Potential and possibility of micro-irrigation with small pumps

• Different technological approaches that address production in the highlands as well as lowlands, especially the pastoralists

• Water harvesting for domestic use, and for livestock

• Moisture conservation in situ
• Catchment protection with methods such as erosion control, aforestation).

Domestic water supply

• Water quantity and quality issues that are important for human consumption

• Storage and treatment technologies and practices

• Water use and hygiene education

• Water delivery and transport systems

• Assessment and protection of groundwater.

Drainage and water use efficiency

• Safe drainage of vertisol soils: Prevention of water logging as well as excess withdrawal

• Water use efficiency at farm level

• Supplementary irrigation.

Uptake of technologies and agricultural crops

• Participatory on-farm development and testing of new technologies (e.g. affordable drip irrigation systems)

• Dissemination of existing farming technologies (e.g. tillage, irrigation, drainage, storage)

• Distinction and relative importance of food crops, cash crops, fodder crops, chat.

Urban and peri-urban agriculture

• Horticultural crops for urban demand

• Potential for roof water collection

Marketing and other economic issues

• Physical access to markets (roads)

• When to store, when to sell?

• Post-harvest technologies (safe storage and transport)

• Property rights: Land tenure, land ownership, land use rights, water rights, fragmentation of land (high pressure on land for new families)

• Issues related to direct taxes on harvest and taxes on inputs, contributions (e.g. church, sports, community activities), repayment of loans and interest (payments by farmers should not be done at harvest time when the prices for produce are low)

• Habits: Non-farming days (religious holidays); uneconomic use of produce (e.g. weddings, festivals); hygiene behaviour; local family planning issues; chat consumption.

Health issues (malaria and other diseases)

• What are the dynamics of increased malaria transmission associated with irrigation and dams?

• How does this change over time?

• Who are affected?

• Relation to livestock (e.g. breeding in hoof prints, diverting mosquitoes to or from people).

• Bed nets (e.g. coverage, affordability).

Potential partners—Ethiopian Ministry of Health; Bureaus of Water Resources (Ethiopia); Bureaus of Health; Institute of Health Research; Universities: Addis Ababa, Alemaya, Jimma, Arbaminch, Mekelle (also medical faculties); NGOs; UNICEF; WHO; ILRI; IWMI; Private enterprises (e.g. treatment, bed nets); Bilaterals; Religious organisations; Ministry of Agriculture; Ministry of Culture; Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs; Regional Governments; Micro-finance Enterprises; Private Enterprises; Regional Research Institutes; Ethiopian Agricultural Research Organization.

Group II: Integrated watershed management

After a detailed deliberation by fourteen experts of diverse technical backgrounds and from different institutions, four key areas were identified as important focus areas for watershed management in the country, from a research and capacity building perspective. These areas included:

• Water harvesting for small-scale irrigation, livestock and domestic use within a watershed
• Alternative energy sources and their potential to sustain livelihood and preserve environmental needs within a watershed, including hydropower, wind, solar, animal wastes, fuel-wood etc.; domestic water supply for human activities and livestock
• Livestock, agroforestry and vegetation management, including the introduction of legumes for soil nutrients replenishment, systems stabilisation through soil improvements and provision of additional livestock fodder etc.
• Health and environmental issues in a watershed. Important environmental issues in a watershed of research and capacity building interest, among others, include soil erosion and land degradation, soil and water conservation, and maintenance of biodiversity within a watershed. Health issues relate more to the impact of different land and water management strategies (including management for irrigation and livestock) on human health–water related diseases etc.

The group identified various research questions, thought to be relevant for the planning research and capacity building work in water and land management in Ethiopia. The questions, grouped according to identified focus areas, are presented below, as is a draft concept note.

Focus Area 1: Water harvesting for small-scale irrigation (SSI), livestock and domestic use

• Identification of best traditional small-scale irrigation practices and water harvesting technologies and assessment of their potential for up-scaling

• Determination of runoff coefficients and rates of sedimentation from various catchments for irrigation scheme design

• Water situation assessment (quality and quantity) in watersheds for various productive purposes, including surface and groundwater potential

• Studies on salinity hazards in small-scale irrigation; prevention and soil reclamation

• Potential for conjunctive use of surface and groundwater sustainably in watershed context

• Selection of biological soil water conservation (SWC) methods in a catchment

• Integrated pest management in watersheds

• Potential for cost recovery in SSI, including an assessment of optimal level of cost that could be incurred by farmers sustainably, and key incentives for repayment of such costs by farmers

• Ways of increasing labour productivity in smallholder production; assessment of complimentary income generating activities such as the integration of fisheries with livestock production etc.

• Role of markets in supporting smallholder production and livelihoods in a watershed, e.g. access to input and output markets. Role of markets in stimulating the productivity and profitability of production on smallholder irrigation schemes and

• Impact of frequent land redistribution on productivity of smallholder farmers (especially irrigation farmers), and farmers incentives for investment in soil and water conservation.

Focus Area II: Livestock, agroforestry and vegetation management

• Assessment of parameters and measurement of water productivity in the livestock sub-sector in the context of growing water scarcity in a watershed

• Potential biological methods of improving/sustaining soil fertility and water productivity in crop–livestock systems in a context of growing scarcity.

Focus Area III: Alternative energy sources in a catchment

• Appropriate technology choice with regards to energy (solar, wind, water/hydropower, animal dung, fuel-wood etc.).

Focus Area IV: Health and environment

• Wetlands management, including potential for sustainable exploitation while preserving environmental values, uses and functions etc.

• Water related diseases in small-scale irrigation (health impacts of water-harvesting technologies; micro-dams etc.)

• Studies on appropriate farming practices that maintain biological diversity and resuscitate environmental quality.

Pre-concept note

Purpose

Given the research questions stipulated above to facilitate sustainable socio-economic development through integrated natural resource management, focusing on water, within a watershed context.

Research questions

(as listed above)

Expected outputs

• Capacity building: through workshops and working with communities; through student collaboration etc.

• Generation of a database that will be a useful planning tool for watershed development (useful for governments, NGOs, communities etc.).

• Various research outputs and packages, with recommendations for policy and development practitioners.

• Establishment of benchmark watershed that will be useful references for the planning and development of other watersheds.

Activities and methods

• Intensive literature review

• In-depth case studies

• Designing of the study through and inception workshop

• Data collection (empirical data)

• Empirical analysis and

• Reporting and dissemination.

Impacts

• Improved food production in catchments

• Improved livelihood of communities and rural people living in catchments

• Rehabilitation of degraded lands and

• Improved capacity of communities to implement or continue projects or initiatives.

Interested partners

IWMI, ILRI, Ministry of Agriculture (Ethiopia), Ministry of Water Resources (Ethiopia), Metaferia Consultant Engineers, Environmental Protection Authority (Ethiopia), Institute for Biodiversity Research and Conservation, Addis Ababa University (Civil Engineering Department), Water Aid Ethiopia, Tigray Water Resources Development Bureau, Tigray Bureau of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Amhara Region Water Bureau; Land, Mines and Energy Resources Bureau for Southern Region; Oromiya Water Resource Bureau; Oromiya Natural Resources Bureau; Oromiya Environmental Bureau; Arbaminch Water Technology Institute.

Possible funding sources

CGIAR: Challenge program on water and food, FIDRC, FIFAD, World Bank, AfDB, FGM, GEF, IUCN, UNDP, USAID, EU, SIDA, Ethiopian Government.

Group III: Basin/trans-boundary issues

This group considered a number of issues, including various scales of analysis as well as categories of research and capacity building issues. The scales included the entire basin within a region or country, shared basins between regions or countries, small and large scale irrigation, and other uses, including hydropower and water supply for domestic and productive purposes.

The group then proceeded to review the Water Resources Policy, Water Resources Strategy of Ethiopia and the Framework Paper Developed by IWMI for water and land Management in the country. Various knowledge gaps and capacity building issues were identified. The major areas of research and capacity building were identified under technical, economic, institutional and legal, and social and environmental categories.

Technical issues

• River Basin Modelling and DSS
  • Groundwater,

  • Catchment, physical models
• Cost effective hydrologic and hydraulic design standards and guidelines

• River morphology, sediment transport and flow/flood characterisation

• Application of emerging technologies—GIS and Remote Sensing
• Water quality and quantity monitoring

• Information management

• Groundwater

• Equitable sharing

• Index catchments modelling

• Performance evaluation

• Optimal use of land and water and other basin resources

• Multi-purpose reservoirs along rivers.

Economic issues

• Public–private sector partnership
• Incentive mechanism for private investment

• Cost recovery

• Marketing problems of irrigation output—facilities at scheme and national policy level
• Flexibility in design—crop and water management patterns—alternatives
• Marketing and credit infrastructure flexibility

• Optimum water and land use planning—links
• Impact—relevance of government water policy on the national economy
• Cross-sectoral issues –water and other sectors of the national economy
• Sustainability of investment

• Impact on income and purchasing power

• Efficiency in BOT for hydropower

• DSS to evaluate impacts of technologies, management approaches, and policies for decision-makers

• Share of investments for water resources development—regions
• Cross-sectoral cost sharing

• Water pricing and tariffs and

• Economic efficiency and social equity.

Institutional and legal issues

• Appropriate institutional set-up at all levels-international experience

• Nature of partnerships/co-operative framework

• Conflict resolution and negotiation

• Water rights at different levels

• Implementation of programmes—institutions
• Information sharing with riparian countries

• Navigational use of rivers and lakes

• Enforcement of water laws—permits
• Indicators for monitoring the following:
  • Environmental impact

  • Technical performance

  • Economic performance
• Wetland management strategy and

• Soil salinity and other issues.

Group IV: Governance and resources

The discussions of this group were focused on institutional requirements for co-ordination and support of water resources research, identifying challenges and possible sources of funding, and identifying key partnerships. The details include:

Institutions

• Endorse autonomous institution for co-ordination and support of water resources research
  • Similar to framework in agriculture and health sector

  • ESTC report offers proposal for this

  • Government should commit itself

  • Gradual development of R&D institution

  • Institution needs strategy for collaboration with international institutions

  • Possibility of IWMI role in institutional development.

Challenge

• Effective co-ordination of the Ethiopian Agricultural Research Organization and the Ministry of Agriculture, Water Resources Research and Development Institute, Ministry of Water Resources, EPA etc.

• Metadata base will help bridge this gap

• Suggest: joint technical committee, with clear guidelines and terms of reference.

• Importance of institutional stability

• Develop water-related research and capacity building project proposals focused on Government priorities—such as PRSP [food security and rural livelihoods and Agricultural Development Led Industrialisation (ADLI)].
  • Water recognised as key sector
  • Government commitment to research—may respond positively
  • Government commitment may leverage donor funds
  • Include research and capacity building components in investment projects.

• Government of Ethiopia
• Private sector
• NGOs
• External support agencies—multilateral, bilateral, initiatives like NBI
• CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food

• Networking among existing water-related institutions, e.g. MoWR, universities, ESTC, EPA, MOA, EARO, professional associations, NGOs etc.
• Partnerships with international institutions, such as ICID, GWP, IWMI, ILRI (and other CGIAR centres), Global Mechanism for Combating Desertification etc.

• Ethiopian national consultative committee on land and water research
• As recommended in Framework Paper
• Reinforces technical committees of the proposed water research institute and EARO
• Must include universities, Geological Survey of Ethiopia, other key national stakeholders.

Group V: Capacity building

The group focused on the identification of primary issues as well as development of key research questions on capacity building in water and land management. Primary issues entailed an assessment of natural resource potential, development, utilisation and associated opportunities. The primary issues, research questions and proposed research questions include:

Assessment

• Water resources potential

• Land resources potential

• Environmental impacts

Development

Planning

Design

Implementation

Utilisation

• Effectiveness

• Efficiency

Opportunities

• Ample potential of water and land resources

• Viable policy has been formulated at the government level

• Sectoral/cross-sectoral strategies and action plans are being developed for implementation of policy

• Increased realisation of the needs for research and capacity building in water and land management

• Intention to establish water research and development institute

• Expansion of higher learning and technical training institutions

• Growing collaboration with donor and international organisations including training institutions.

Potential research questions

• Analyse minimum capacity requirements for research on land and water resources management with reference to:
  • Human resource

  • Financial resource

  • Institutional aspects

• Evaluate existing programmes with the view to strengthening the relevance and effectiveness of training in Land and Water resource management
• Identify causes and extent of brain drain with a view to creating an enabling environment for researchers.

Proposed next steps

• The identified research questions could be addressed under the framework of the proposed water R&D institute

• The report of the study of R&D in the water sector could serve as a basis for developing research ideas and priorities.

Recommendations

• The proposed Water R&D institute should be established as soon as possible

• Project proposals should be developed to address the specific research questions identified under the proposed collaboration framework.

Key partnerships

• Main stakeholders in Land and Water resource management
  • Urban and rural communities

  • National and regional research institutions

  • Government institutions (e.g. AAWAS, EEPCO, NMSA, GSE, Ministries of water resources, agriculture, infrastructure, capacity building, rural development), Regional Water Bureau)

  • Higher learning and technical institutions (e.g. AWTI, AAU, AU, MU, JU, BU, DU)

  • Industry (private and public)

  • Non-governmental organisations—local and international (e.g. Water Aid, Water Action, SNV)
  • International research organisations (e.g. ILRI, IWMI)

  • Donor agencies (e.g. GTZ, SIDA, Dutch Government, CIDA, USAID, JICA)

  • Consulting firms (e.g. WWDSE, MCE, Aquatech Consult, Continental Tropics)